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"It is therefore only by variously combining objects, by leaving (if I may be allowed the expression) the mind to rove at will, and by employing no more attention than is necessary to collect the result of its thoughts, and to select therefrom such as are for its purpose."

— Marat, Jean-Paul (1743-1793)

Author

A Philosophical Essay on Man

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for J. Ridley; and T. Payne

Date

1773

Metaphor

"It is therefore only by variously combining objects, by leaving (if I may be allowed the expression) the mind to rove at will, and by employing no more attention than is necessary to collect the result of its thoughts, and to select therefrom such as are for its purpose."

Metaphor in Context

Imagination requires less force of the organs than reason, but a greater share of organic elasticity of the fibres, or rather a greater share of sensibility. For it is not always by a careful examination of objects, nor by a series of many successive combinations, that the imagination forms new productions: the most happy strokes of fancy often present themselves to the mind spontaneously, when we least think, and are never the fruit of pains or plodding. It is therefore only by variously combining objects, by leaving (if I may be allowed the expression) the mind to rove at will, and by employing no more attention than is necessary to collect the result of its thoughts, and to select therefrom such as are for its purpose. The greater our sensibility, the more liable we are to distraction, the more affected by analogies, the less attached to material objects, and the more capable of those happy, but fortuitous combinations, the true source of ingenious sallies, and of the noblest productions of the human mind.

Thus therefore men who have but little sensibility, and are of robust organs, can possess but a small share of imagination: men, who are but little sensible, and yet delicate, must possess more. They, who are feeble and of great sensibility, yet greater: and they who are extremely vigorous and extremely sensible, most of all. Eager to rise above the sphere of the senses, these can alone soar above this low world, and with a bold wing traversing the boundless tracts of aether transport themselves to worlds unexplored before.
(pp. 233-4)